A pregnant lady and a young couple walk across the street. No, this isn’t the beginning of a bad joke. The morning of the last Saturday in April, my wife, myself, and a friend of our who is 8 1/2 months pregnant walked the streets of Boyle Heights picking up trash. We parked at the corner of Cesar Chavez and Flickett St and started picking up cigarette buds and candy wrappers. I normally wouldn’t think picking up trash as fun, but we had a really good time. In the first hour we filled our first bag of all kinds of stuff… ALL KINDS OF STUFF.
About 15 minutes after arriving some men inside the gates to their apartment complex told us, “Good job,” and about halfway through our first bag we had a conversation with another neighbor who lived down the street. She asked us what we were doing and why. We told her that we wanted to pick up trash in the neighborhood and we were from a church plant that would launch soon. She was very happy we were there helping out. She also told us that she would clean the street, but several of her neighbors told her to stop cleaning everyone else’s trash and to only worry about herself. I felt that this would be a barrier we needed to pray to break down.
We also met a business owner who had some boxes that someone left on their property. After picking up the boxes and taking sending a picture to LA’s 311 app of a sofa left on the street our bag was full. Right on time a woman who was cleaning up Cesar Chavez came by. She works for Urban Foresters who has been hired by CD-14 to clean up Cesar Chavez and Soto throughout the week. The problem is that CD-14 only pays for 1-2 people to come and clean the 2 mile stretch of busy streets so they are always looking for volunteers. We exchanged info and continued on to our day.
Right now there are only two people who work to clean Soto and 1st St along with two volunteers. Could we double that number? Could we partner with churches, businesses, and other organizations to make that number 10-20 people? I think so.
We moved down one block to Mott and filled another bag of trash. While cleaning in front of an abandoned house, a boy around 10 years old was skateboarded next to us. In between jumps off a break in the sidewalk, he asked us if we do a trash pickup. We said yes and he thought that was very cool. We cheered him on after performing an ollie over the break and he left with his family in their minivan.
Our mission and vision of Hope, Healing & Unity really came into play during this time. There were a few people, especially the women that lived down the street that may have had some hope of a clean neighborhood restored. There was some healing of the land, and with it, we pray for healing of the people. And there was unity, working with Urban Foresters. We also recognize that if we are able to partner with 5 churches in Boyle Heights to pick up trash once a week or once a month, we could make a huge difference. Also, we used the City of LA 311 app to send reports of illegal dumping and bulky item pickup. If all of us who are able can use that app to report things left on the street and graffiti, we can do a lot of good.
Use the City of LA’s 311 app for Andriod and iOS to report things like bulky item pickup and illegal dumping, potholes and sidewalk repair, graffiti removal and more in the city of Los Angeles.
Well, this was a little long, but I pray you get a glimpse of what we are doing and trying to do as Orphan City Church. Continue to pray with us for God to bring Hope to the fatherless, Heal the wounds of broken people, and move in Unity to restore Boyle Heights and beyond to the family of God. Peace!
